Broos happy Bafana ‘have some big guys now’, to face physical Cranes

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos is confident of his team opening with a victory in their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier against Uganda at Orlando Stadium on Friday, stressing the result should set the tone for the rest of group campaign.

Bafana are in Group K with South Sudan, who they meet away in Juba on Tuesday, and Congo, who they take on home and away next month.

Bafana are the highest-ranked team (57th in the world, 10th in Africa) in the group and the only side that qualified for the last Afcon. Uganda, ranked 94th, will be desperate to qualify for Morocco after missing out confirming their place in Ivory Coast in their last match. Congo are ranked 118th and South Sudan 169th.

Broos warned against taking the Cranes lightly on Friday, saying they are a team likely to gain confidence and take their chances if they see their opponents’ complacency. “We have to keep ourselves on a certain line,” the experienced Belgian said of the need for this year’s Afcon bronze medallists in Ivory Coast to keep grounded and continue grinding strong results, to keep their momentum and development.

“It's a team that plays with dedication. They're runners. In all the games I've seen, it's a difficult team to play against. They want to play and they want to be tough,” Broos, who has declared respect for Paul Put, Uganda’s coach who’s his countryman.

“On the other side, I saw where we have to manage them in defence, but certainly also when we have the ball. If we can do that, we can win the game. Because, as I said, if we can play good football. like we've played in recent games. and win, [then] OK, I'm happy. But I will be [more] happy to show the right mentality — if we don't have the right mentality tomorrow, it will be very difficult.”

Broos said he was pleased with the physicality, size and height of some of his players,  uncharacteristic for Bafana, something he said was critical against teams like Uganda, who usually have taller and tougher players.

“When I started coaching Bafana, we had some problems in some games because we didn’t have the height in our team; we didn’t have the power. We looked for it, and we found it. Grant [Johnson], our goalkeeper coach, was saying the other day: ‘Hey, we have a big team now’. It’s true we have some big guys, and you need that.

“It’s not enough that you can play football when you don’t have the physical qualities. We have guys like [Sphephelo] Sithole, [Rushwin] Dortley and [Siyabonga] Ngezana. We’re there, where we need to be, and we need them tomorrow in that game against Uganda because they have several guys with that height.”

The Bafana coach has a big decision to make with the goalkeeper. With captain Ronwen Williams injured, AmaZulu’s Veli Mothwa, Ricardo Goss of SuperSport United and Sipho Chaine of Orlando Pirates will fight for the place between the posts.

“Yes,” Broos said when asked if he’s decided on who he would choose. “You're coming to the game tomorrow? You’ll see. The only thing I can do is give them confidence. I believe in those guys who are there, whoever it will be I will be confident in him.

“I know it’s not easy to replace a guy like Ronwen, but OK, Ronwen is not here and we know all the good things he’s done for this team. We have to put our confidence in the goalkeeper who will play. I’m not afraid of that.”

Uganda, who last qualified for the Afcon in 2019, have only made seven appearances at the finals. Their best run was in the eight-team tournament in Ghana in 1978, where they finished second behind the hosts.

Bafana v Uganda — head to head

2021-06-11: (Friendly) — SA 3 Uganda 2

2019-06-04: (Friendly) — Uganda 1 SA 1

2005-03-26: (WC qualifier) — SA 2 Uganda 1

2004-10-10: (WC qualifier) — Uganda 0 SA 1